Management nightmare of the week: Gallows humor
What could make your restaurant seem more whimsical and on-the-edge than using a hanging scene to promote one of its signature dishes? If you’ve been thinking the same thing—first, get help, and second, consider what happened when Joe’s Crab Shack tried that very thing.
A photo laminated into at least one of the chain’s tabletops depicted a hanging in Texas, Joe’s home state, in 1895. In the foreground are crowds waiting for the spectacle of an African-American man dying in public view. In the background are the gallows and the man himself. Here’s what’s even more hilarious: The man has been given a cartoon-style quote, “All I said was that I didn’t like the gumbo.”
What’s funnier than a culinary quip from a black man being strung up in the South during Jim Crow days?
To its credit, Joe’s parent company, Ignite Restaurant Group, immediately removed the photo and apologized for the lapse, suggesting the misfire had only occurred in one store and would not be repeated.